Rev. Peter M Preble – Page 88 – Open-Minded, Open-Hearted Minister & Soul Friend

It’s not about the Woman

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Fr. Peter

Tonight we restarted our weekly Bible Study after a break for Easter. We have been working our way through the Gospel of John, one of my favorite books of the Bible. What we do is read a chapter and then comment on it. I use the Orthodox Study Bible as the foot notes are great. I am not crazy about the translation but, like I said, the foot notes are worth the price of admission.

Tonight we read from chapter eight, the story of the adulterous woman. You know the story. Jesus was teaching the in synagogue and the Pharisees bring Him a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. He kneels down and starts to write in the dust one the floor and they continue to ask Him what should be done. The law says that she should be stoned but, as the foot notes mention, this law had not really be strictly enforced in the days of Jesus. So He continues to write with His finger on the ground, then He stands up and asks that whoever has not sinned to cast the first stone. And they all walk away. When He realizes that they have all left He asks the woman where they had all gone and she answers that they left. Jesus tells her He does not condemn her and to go and sin no more.

Now at a first glance we might ask well where the man is, after all it takes two to tango. The man is not mentioned, not because the writer of John’s Gospel hated women, he is not mentioned because this is not about the woman, than man, or adultery, this passage is about sin in general and how we are to live and judge others without first judging ourselves. We get caught up in the injustice of the law and forget that this is about sin and forgiveness not about the sin. Sin is not the object, forgiveness is the object.

When we approach Scripture we need to approach with an open mind and an open heart and be willing to take the journey with God. A simple surface reading of the passage will lead us in the wrong direction but a careful, prayerful, study of this passage will lead us to see the real meaning that lies just under the surface. What we see on the surface is not always what we are to learn from Scripture and that is the value of this lesson and this passage.

Did the woman sin? Yes. Jesus never addresses the woman until the end, His focus is on those who accuse her and the fact that they themselves need to be forgiven. The lesson is before we tell someone else how to live make sure we are living the way we are supposed to.

Blog

Summer Challenge: Local Sites

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Fr. Peter

Local historian Elizabeth Covart has posted a challenge to visit local historical sites, museums or other local experiences that you have been putting off visiting. I have traveled to many countries around the world and seen many things but I have never been to the Worcester Art Museum for example.

So, I am taking her up on her challenge and I have posted a list of site I would like to visit this summer. Now I know in all reality I will not get to them all, and some I have visited before but would like to visit again, so I will check them off as I go. I am extending the challenge to all of my readers to take some time this summer and get out and explore the local area where you live. If you do, tell me about it in the comments section below.

Here is my list in no particular order:

The Springfield Armory National Historic Site

Roger Williams National Memorial

The Old North Church

Worcester Historical Museum

Worcester Art Museum

Museum of African American History

Bunker Hill Monument (I have never been!)

Old South Meeting House

The Old Massachusetts State House

Granery Burial Ground (I have been but I would like to go back)

King’s Chapel

USS Constitution (was there years ago but would like to return)

Adams National Historic Site

Not really local but:

Seminary Ridge Museum

National Civil War Chaplains Museum

Grant’s Tomb

Blog

What Blinds Us?

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Fr. Peter

We are approaching the end of the Easter season in the Orthodox Church and the last few weeks the Scripture lessons have been focused on the healing power of Christ and His Church. This week the Scripture identifies a man that has been blind from birth and as he approaches Jesus’ disciples ask Him if the man is blind because of his sin or the son of his parents. You see it was a common belief that sin, your own or that of your parents caused your health problems. Suffering can be caused by the choices that we make, but the state of our health is not generally caused by sin.

As is customary in these stories in Scripture, Jesus heals the man of His malady. Sometimes Jesus does this simply with words, “you are healed,” “take up your mat and go,” but in this case he actually performs an action to heal the man. Jesus spits on the ground and makes a paste from the dust and his spittle and places it on the man’s eyes, and tells him to go and wash in the pool, then man does this and his receives his sight. This is an extraordinary action, by using the elements of the earth to restore this man’s sight; Jesus is revealing that He is the creator of all and reminding those present that all of humanity was created from the elements of the earth.

I have always been amazed that the people who witnessed events such as this were not convinced on the spot, that Jesus was the Messiah the one who has come to save the world. I mean what more proof do you need? The blind see, the lame walk, and the dead have been raised. We require less proof that a news story is true before we believe and tell others about it. But you see those present were blind in their heart and in their mind.

Just as happened at other times Jesus healed people, those in power were blind to the power of God for the perceived breaking of the law. They were unable to see what had happened because they were more concerned about following the rules then they were with helping people. The rule book told them that they could not do certain things on certain days and this man, Jesus, dared to violate the rules and therefore was a fraud. They were so blind with hate and prejudice that they could not see the working of God right before their own eyes.

We are all blind from time to time. Sometimes we are blind on purpose and other times we are blind not of our own fault. We wish to help those in other places who are suffering but we ignore the suffering of those living right next door to us. We are blind to the suffering we cause with our words or actions or our inaction, and we are blind to our own pain that has been left to fester and we are so paralyzed by the rules that we do not know how to seek the help we need.

Every action the Jesus took, every word that He spoke was designed as a lesson, not only for those there with Him but for us as well. Sure this man had a physical ailment that needed healing but this man was a prototype of all of humanity and we all need to be healed of our blindness. Some of us are blinded by our manifold sins and we just do not know how to climb out of the trash heap we have placed ourselves in. Some of us might be blinded by bitterness of a past relationship and that keeps us from getting close to others. And some of us a blinded and paralyzed by the rules and therefore we cannot see what needs to be done. Jesus not only opened the eyes of the man in the story but He opened his heart as well.

Now, lest anyone say I don’t think the rules are important, that is not the case. Rules are necessary but sometimes we hide behind them as an excuse to not do anything or we are so concerned about “doing it the right way,” that we never get around to actually doing it! Jesus saw a need, and He got to work. He did not ask questions, He did not seek permission, He knelt down and got His hands dirty and solved the problem. He did not look to assign blame. He did not seek to find the appropriate rule to justify His doing or not doing what needed to be done, He just did it and that is what we need to do.

This essay originally appeared in the Tantasqua Town Common, and The Quaboag Currant

Blog

Thousands of American military graves lie forgotten and lost abroad

Posted on May 29, 2014 by Fr. Peter

Snow covers the ground at Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium. More than 5,300 WWII casualties are buried there, and another 462 missing in action are memorialized by name. Photo: ABMC

We don’t know how many Americans who died while serving during wartime are buried on foreign soil. Why? For one, there isn’t a single organization that tracks the burials. There is no database of every American service member buried overseas. And the reason why there is no database is because finding all of America’s war dead is a complicated process.

While some are buried in formal memorial cemeteries, others are in private cemeteries, mass graves and isolated burial sites. Old records have been lost and new burials are being discovered. Women were not always counted among the war dead. Thousands of Americans fought under foreign flags before the U.S. entered the world wars, and are buried as foreigners. Those missing in action or lost at sea further complicate tracking. And some have just been lost.

But one historian has been painstakingly counting, cataloging and mapping the locations of American war dead buried outside formal memorial cemeteries.

“In my view, who we celebrate on Memorial Day are the Americans who we know were American, were buried in American cemeteries, and we don’t think of the other Americans who were in ambulance services or Commonwealth forces, the French Foreign Legion,” said author Chris Dickon. “We’ve never included them in what we’ve thought of Memorial Day, basically I think because we haven’t known about them.”

While researching a book about one of the first frigates in the U.S. Navy, Chris Dickon stumbled on a burial site in Canada where 200 American casualties from the War of 1812 had been buried, and apparently, forgotten.

Read the Rest

Blog

Boston Garden of Flags

Posted on May 26, 2014 by Fr. Peter

At the base of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument on The Boston Common is a memorial to the 37,000 residents of Massachusetts who gave their lives in all of the wars from the Revolutionary War to present day. This annual memorial is sponsored by the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund. If you find yourself in Boston do stop by and pay your respects.

Blog

Patriarch Bartholomew’s Homily in Jersualem

Posted on May 25, 2014 by Fr. Peter

“Do not be afraid; for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay.” (Matt. 28.5-6)

Your Holiness and dearly beloved brother in Christ,
Your Beatitude Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem, much loved brother and concelebrant in the Lord,
Your Eminences, Your Excellencies, and very reverend representatives of the Christian churches and confessions,
Esteemed brothers and sisters,

It is with awe, emotion and respect that we stand before “the place where the Lord lay,” the life-giving tomb from which life emerged. And we offer glory to the all-merciful God, who rendered us, as His unworthy servants, worthy of this supreme blessing to become pilgrims in the place where the mystery of the world’s salvation transpired. “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.” (Gen. 28.17)

We have come as the myrrh-bearing women, on the first day of the week, “to see the sepulcher” (Matt. 28.1), and we too, like they, hear the angelic exhortation: “Do not be afraid.” Remove from your hearts every fear; do not hesitate; do not despair. This Tomb radiates messages of courage, hope and life.

The first and greatest message from this empty Sepulcher is that death, “this last enemy” of ours (see 1 Cor. 15.26), the source of all fears and passions, has been conquered; it no longer holds the final word in our life. It has been overcome by love, by Him, who voluntarily accepted to endure death for the sake of others. Every death for the sake of love, for the sake of another, is transformed into life, true life. “Christ is risen from the dead, by death trampling down death, and to those in the tombs He has granted life.”

Do not, then, be afraid of death; but do not also be afraid of evil, despite any form that this might assume in our life. The Cross of Christ amassed all the arrows of evil: hatred, violence, injustice, pain, humiliation – everything that is suffered by the poor, the vulnerable, the oppressed, the exploited, the marginalized and the disgraced in our world. However, rest assured – all of you who are crucified in this life – that, just as in the case of Christ, the Cross is followed by the Resurrection; that hatred, violence and injustice have no prospect; and that the future belongs to justice, love and life. Therefore, you should work toward this end with all the resources that you have in love, faith and patience.

Nonetheless, there is another message that emanates from this venerable Tomb, before which we stand at this moment. This is the message that history cannot be programmed; that the ultimate word in history does not belong to man, but to God. In vain did the guards of secular power watch over this Tomb. In vain did they place a very large stone against the door of the Tomb, so that none could roll it away. In vain are the long-term strategies of the world’s powerful – everything is eventually contingent upon the judgment and will of God. Every effort of contemporary humanity to shape its future alone and without God constitutes vain conceit.

Lastly, this sacred Tomb invites us to shed another fear that is perhaps the most prevalent in our modern age: namely, fear of the other, fear of the different, fear of the adherent of another faith, another religion, or another confession. Racial and all other forms of discrimination are still widespread in many of our contemporary societies; what is worst is that they frequently even permeate the religious life of people. Religious fanaticism already threatens peace in many regions of the globe, where the very gift of life is sacrificed on the altar of religious hatred. In the face of such conditions, the message of the life-giving Tomb is urgent and clear: love the other, the different other, the followers of other faiths and other confessions. Love them as your brothers and sisters. Hatred leads to death, while love “casts out fear” (1 John 4.18) and leads to life.

Dear friends,
Fifty years ago, two great church leaders, the late Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, cast out fear; they cast away from themselves the fear which had prevailed for a millennium, a fear which had kept the two ancient Churches, of the West and East, at a distance from one another, sometimes even setting them up against each other. Instead, as they stood before this sacred space, they exchanged fear with love. And so here we are, as their successors, following in their footsteps and honoring their heroic initiative. We have exchanged an embrace of love, even as we continue along the path toward full communion with one another in love and truth (Eph. 4.15) in order “that the world may believe” (John 17.21) that no other way leads to life except the way of love, reconciliation, genuine peace and fidelity to the Truth.

This is the way that all Christians are called to follow in their relations among themselves – whatever church or confession they belong to – thereby providing an example for the rest of the world. The way may be long and arduous; indeed, to some it may occasionally seem like an impasse. However, it is the only way that leads to the fulfillment of the Lord’s will “that [His disciples] may be one.” (John 17.21) It is this divine will that opened the way traveled by the leader of our faith, our Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified and resurrected in this holy place. To Him belong glory and might, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, to the ages of ages. Amen.

“Beloved, let us love one another; for love is of God.” (1 John 4.7)

Blog

Pope Francis’ Homily in Jerusalem

Posted on May 25, 2014 by Fr. Peter

[Remarks as prepared for delivery]

In this Basilica, which all Christians regard with the deepest veneration, my pilgrimage in the company of my beloved brother in Christ, His Holiness Bartholomaios, now reaches its culmination. We are making this pilgrimage in the footsteps of our venerable predecessors, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, who, with courage and docility to the Holy Spirit, made possible, fifty years ago, in this holy city of Jerusalem, an historic meeting between the Bishop of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople. I cordially greet all of you who are present. In a special way I express my heartfelt gratitude to those who have made this moment possible: His Beatitude Theophilos, who has welcomed us so graciously, His Beatitude Nourhan Manoogian and Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa.

It is an extraordinary grace to be gathered here in prayer. The empty tomb, that new garden grave where Joseph of Arimathea had reverently placed Jesus’ body, is the place from which the proclamation of the resurrection begins: “Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised, as he said.

Come, see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples, ‘He has been raised from the dead'” (Mt 28:5-7).

This proclamation, confirmed by the testimony of those to whom the risen Lord appeared, is the heart of the Christian message, faithfully passed down from generation to generation, as the Apostle Paul, from the very beginning, bears witness:

“I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:3-4). This is the basis of the faith which unites us, whereby together we profess that Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of the Father and our sole Lord, “suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended into hell; on the third day he rose again from the dead” (Apostles’ Creed ). Each of us, everyone baptized in Christ, has spiritually risen from this tomb, for in baptism all of us truly became members of the body of the One who is the Firstborn of all creation; we were buried together with him, so as to be raised up with him and to walk in newness of life (cf. Rom 6:4).

Let us receive the special grace of this moment. We pause in reverent silence before this empty tomb in order to rediscover the grandeur of our Christian vocation: we are men and women of resurrection, and not of death. From this place we learn how to live our lives, the trials of our Churches and of the whole world, in the light of Easter morning. Every injury, every one of our pains and sorrows, has been borne on the shoulders of the Good Shepherd who offered himself in sacrifice and thereby opened the way to eternal life. His open wounds are the cleft through which the torrent of his mercy is poured out upon the world. Let us not allow ourselves to be robbed of the basis of our hope! Let us not deprive the world of the joyful message of the resurrection! And let us not be deaf to the powerful summons to unity which rings out from this very place, in the words of the One who, risen from the dead, calls all of us “my brothers” (cf. Mt 28:10; Jn 20:17).

Clearly we cannot deny the divisions which continue to exist among us, the disciples of Jesus: this sacred place makes us even more painfully aware of how tragic they are. And yet, fifty years after the embrace of those two venerable Fathers, we realize with gratitude and renewed amazement how it was possible, at the prompting of the Holy Spirit, to take truly significant steps towards unity. We know that much distance still needs to be travelled before we attain that fullness of communion which can also be expressed by sharing the same Eucharistic table, something we ardently desire; yet our disagreements must not frighten us and paralyze our progress. We need to believe that, just as the stone before the tomb was cast aside, so too every obstacle to our full communion will also be removed. This will be a grace of resurrection, of which we can have a foretaste even today. Every time we ask forgiveness of one another for our sins against other Christians and every time we find the courage to grant and receive such forgiveness, we experience the resurrection! Every time we put behind us our longstanding prejudices and find the courage to build new fraternal relationships, we confess that Christ is truly risen! Every time we reflect on the future of the Church in the light of her vocation to unity, the dawn of Easter breaks forth! Here I reiterate the hope already expressed by my predecessors for a continued dialogue with all our brothers and sisters in Christ, aimed at finding a means of exercising the specific ministry of the Bishop of Rome which, in fidelity to his mission, can be open to a new situation and can be, in the present context, a service of love and of communion acknowledged by all (cf. JOHN PAUL II, Ut Unum Sint , 95-96).

Standing as pilgrims in these holy places, we also remember in our prayers the entire Middle East, so frequently and lamentably marked by acts of violence and conflict. Nor do we forget in our prayers the many other men and women who in various parts of our world are suffering from war, poverty and hunger, as well as the many Christians who are persecuted for their faith in the risen Lord. When Christians of different confessions suffer together, side by side, and assist one another with fraternal charity, there is born an ecumenism of suffering, an ecumenism of blood, which proves particularly powerful not only for those situations in which it occurs, but also, by virtue of the communion of the saints, for the whole Church as well.

Your Holiness, beloved brother, dear brothers and sisters all, let us put aside the misgivings we have inherited from the past and open our hearts to the working of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of love (cf. Rom 5:5) and of truth (cf. Jn 16:13), in order to hasten together towards that blessed day when our full communion will be restored. In making this journey, we feel ourselves sustained by the prayer which Jesus himself, in this city, on the eve of his passion, death and resurrection, offered to the Father for his disciples. It is a prayer which we ourselves in humility never tire to make our own: “that they may all be one… that the world may believe” (Jn 17:21).

Blog

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Francis Release Joint Statement

Posted on May 25, 2014 by Fr. Peter

JERUSALEM – His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and His Holiness Pope Francis crossed a fifty-year milestone today, continuing the legacy of their predecessors Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras. In 1964, those leaders broke a silence of centuries and paved the way toward greater dialogue.

Meeting this afternoon at the Apostolic Delegation in the Old City of Jerusalem, the global heads of the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Churches signed a Joint Declaration affirming their commitment to seek unity between their respective ecclesial bodies. Moreover, they expressed their profound concern for the situation of Christians in the Middle East and for their fundamental right to remain full citizens of their homelands:

We are persuaded that it is not arms, but dialogue, pardon and reconciliation that are the only possible means to achieve peace.

The Pope and the Ecumenical Patriarch also reaffirmed their responsibility and obligation to foster a sense of humility and moderation so that all may feel the need to respect creation and to safeguard it with care:

Together, we pledge our commitment to raising awareness about the stewardship of creation; we appeal to all people of goodwill to consider ways of living less wastefully and more frugally, manifesting less greed and more generosity for the protection of God’s world and the benefit of His people.

Finally, the two world leaders underlined the importance of religious understanding and dialogue:

We invite all Christians to promote an authentic dialogue with Judaism, Islam and other religious traditions. Indifference and mutual ignorance can only lead to mistrust and unfortunately even conflict. (see full text of the Joint Declaration below)

Joint Declaration by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Pope Francis

Like our venerable predecessors Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras who met here in Jerusalem fifty years ago, we too, Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, were determined to meet in the Holy Land “where our common Redeemer, Christ our Lord, lived, taught, died, rose again, and ascended into Heaven, whence he sent the Holy Spirit on the infant Church”. Our meeting, another encounter of the Bishops of the Churches of Rome and Constantinople founded respectively by the two Brothers the Apostles Peter and Andrew, is a source of profound spiritual joy for us. It presents a providential occasion to reflect on the depth and the authenticity of our existing bonds, themselves the fruit of a grace-filled journey on which the Lord has guided us since that blessed day of fifty years ago.
Our fraternal encounter today is a new and necessary step on the journey towards the unity to which only the Holy Spirit can lead us, that of communion in legitimate diversity. We call to mind with profound gratitude the steps that the Lord has already enabled us to undertake. The embrace exchanged between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras here in Jerusalem, after many centuries of silence, paved the way for a momentous gesture, the removal from the memory and from the midst of the Church of the acts of mutual excommunication in 1054. This was followed by an exchange of visits between the respective Sees of Rome and Constantinople, by regular correspondence and, later, by the decision announced by Pope John Paul II and Patriarch Dimitrios, of blessed memory both, to initiate a theological dialogue of truth between Catholics and Orthodox. Over these years, God, the source of all peace and love, has taught us to regard one another as members of the same Christian family, under one Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, and to love one another, so that we may confess our faith in the same Gospel of Christ, as received by the Apostles and expressed and transmitted to us by the Ecumenical Councils and the Church Fathers. While fully aware of not having reached the goal of full communion, today we confirm our commitment to continue walking together towards the unity for which Christ our Lord prayed to the Father so “that all may be one” (Jn 17:21).
Well aware that unity is manifested in love of God and love of neighbour, we look forward in eager anticipation to the day in which we will finally partake together in the Eucharistic banquet. As Christians, we are called to prepare to receive this gift of Eucharistic communion, according to the teaching of Saint Irenaeus of Lyon, through the confession of the one faith, persevering prayer, inner conversion, renewal of life and fraternal dialogue. By achieving this hoped for goal, we will manifest to the world the love of God by which we are recognized as true disciples of Jesus Christ (cf. Jn 13:35).
To this end, the theological dialogue undertaken by the Joint International Commission offers a fundamental contribution to the search for full communion among Catholics and Orthodox. Throughout the subsequent times of Popes John Paul II and Benedict the XVI, and Patriarch Dimitrios, the progress of our theological encounters has been substantial. Today we express heartfelt appreciation for the achievements to date, as well as for the current endeavours. This is no mere theoretical exercise, but an exercise in truth and love that demands an ever deeper knowledge of each other’s traditions in order to understand them and to learn from them. Thus we affirm once again that the theological dialogue does not seek a theological lowest common denominator on which to reach a compromise, but is rather about deepening one’s grasp of the whole truth that Christ has given to his Church, a truth that we never cease to understand better as we follow the Holy Spirit’s promptings. Hence, we affirm together that our faithfulness to the Lord demands fraternal encounter and true dialogue. Such a common pursuit does not lead us away from the truth; rather, through an exchange of gifts, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, it will lead us into all truth (cf. Jn 16:13).
Yet even as we make this journey towards full communion we already have the duty to offer common witness to the love of God for all people by working together in the service of humanity, especially in defending the dignity of the human person at every stage of life and the sanctity of family based on marriage, in promoting peace and the common good, and in responding to the suffering that continues to afflict our world. We acknowledge that hunger, poverty, illiteracy, the inequitable distribution of resources must constantly be addressed. It is our duty to seek to build together a just and humane society in which no-one feels excluded or emarginated.
It is our profound conviction that the future of the human family depends also on how we safeguard – both prudently and compassionately, with justice and fairness – the gift of creation that our Creator has entrusted to us. Therefore, we acknowledge in repentance the wrongful mistreatment of our planet, which is tantamount to sin before the eyes of God. We reaffirm our responsibility and obligation to foster a sense of humility and moderation so that all may feel the need to respect creation and to safeguard it with care. Together, we pledge our commitment to raising awareness about the stewardship of creation; we appeal to all people of goodwill to consider ways of living less wastefully and more frugally, manifesting less greed and more generosity for the protection of God’s world and the benefit of His people.
There is likewise an urgent need for effective and committed cooperation of Christians in order to safeguard everywhere the right to express publicly one’s faith and to be treated fairly when promoting that which Christianity continues to offer to contemporary society and culture. In this regard, we invite all Christians to promote an authentic dialogue with Judaism, Islam and other religious traditions. Indifference and mutual ignorance can only lead to mistrust and unfortunately even conflict.
From this holy city of Jerusalem, we express our shared profound concern for the situation of Christians in the Middle East and for their right to remain full citizens of their homelands. In trust we turn to the almighty and merciful God in a prayer for peace in the Holy Land and in the Middle East in general. We especially pray for the Churches in Egypt, Syria, and Iraq, which have suffered most grievously due to recent events. We encourage all parties regardless of their religious convictions to continue to work for reconciliation and for the just recognition of peoples’ rights. We are persuaded that it is not arms, but dialogue, pardon and reconciliation that are the only possible means to achieve peace.
In an historical context marked by violence, indifference and egoism, many men and women today feel that they have lost their bearings. It is precisely through our common witness to the good news of the Gospel that we may be able to help the people of our time to rediscover the way that leads to truth, justice and peace. United in our intentions, and recalling the example, fifty years ago here in Jerusalem, of Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras, we call upon all Christians, together with believers of every religious tradition and all people of good will, to recognize the urgency of the hour that compels us to seek the reconciliation and unity of the human family, while fully respecting legitimate differences, for the good of all humanity and of future generations.
In undertaking this shared pilgrimage to the site where our one same Lord Jesus Christ was crucified, buried and rose again, we humbly commend to the intercession of the Most Holy and Ever Virgin Mary our future steps on the path towards the fullness of unity, entrusting to God’s infinite love the entire human family.

“ May the Lord let his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you! The Lord look upon you kindly and give you peace!” (Num 6:25-26).

Blog